Saturday, November 19, 2016

How Russia Hacked USA Election- NSA Director

Admiral Michael Rogers, commander of US Cyber Command, director of the
National Security Agency (NSA) and chief of the Central Security Service, has
made a shocking revelation at the role played by Russia in the recently held
American elections.

Rogers
spoke candidly about how cyber-attacks and foreign interference affected the
outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

“There
shouldn’t be any doubts in anybody’s mind: This was not something that was done
casually, this was not something that was done by chance, this was not a target
that was selected purely arbitrarily,” Rogers said at a Wall Street Journal
election forum. “This was a conscious effort by a nation state to attempt to
achieve a specific effect.”

Rogers
was directly indicting Russia, following the accusation of U.S. officials that
the Kremlin were behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s
internal email server in July and the breaching of Clinton campaign chairman
John Podesta’s personal Gmail account.

The
argument was laid out in a post on Medium this week, which provides some
evidence that may raise eyebrows of Clinton supporters.

“Why
were our internal and public polls so unprecedentedly off the mark?
Think-pieces have struggled to answer with ideas like "voting patterns
have changed" or Conway's "shadow supporters" purposefully
misleading pollsters. But maybe the explanation is both crazier and much
simpler. Maybe Russia, continuing their well-established patterns of tipping
elections and quietly toppling governments, in line with their clear preference
for Trump, took advantage of electronic voting and simply hacked a few key
vulnerable counties in Wisconsin, PA, and FL to take out a historically
anti-Russian Clinton in favor of Trump.”

The machines most
susceptible to hacking are the direct-recording electronic voting machines --
electronic touch-screen machines with no verifiable paper trail.

Additionally,
as the Medium post notes, "In paper ballot counties Obama won in 2012, the
ballot county losses are 1–2 percent. However in counties Obama won in 2012
that are purely digital, she lost by 10–15 percent."

In
addition, Russian hackers reportedly targeted state election systems in Arizona
and Illinois. Coincidentally or not, the Russian deputy foreign minister said
after the election that Russian government officials had conferred with members
of Trump's campaign squad.

The
top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee called Thursday for an
investigation into Russia's meddling in the US election, in a letter sent to
the Republican in charge of the committee.

House
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi supported the idea Thursday as well, saying the
hacking should be investigated.

Maryland
Rep. Elijah Cummings sent a letter to chairman Jason Chaffetz calling for a
"bipartisan" look at Russia's involvement in the election.

Chaffetz
was "open" to the idea in a private meeting the two had, Cummings
wrote, but wanted "evidence." Cummings wrote the letter as follow-up
to publicly show Chaffetz such evidence.

Chaffetz
did not immediately respond to the letter.

The
Democrat congressman said that though the hacks were on Democratic groups, the
outrage at Russia's actions should be bipartisan.

"Elections
are the bedrock of our nation's democracy," Cummings wrote. "Any
attempt by a foreign power to undermine them is a direct attack on our core
democratic values, and it should chill every member of Congress and American --
red or blue -- to the core."